More Awards: LA Film Critics

Posted on December 9, 2013 at 12:00 pm

A very tight contest, with ties for best picture, best actress, and best supporting actor. The biggest surprise was the award for James Franco’s “Alien” in “Spring Breakers,” an over-the-top performance in a film that divided critics between those who thought it was a commentary on vile, exploitive culture and those who thought it perpetuated and exemplified it.

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM: Blue Is the Warmest Color
Runner-up: The Great Beauty

BEST PICTURE (tie): Gravity and Her

BEST ACTRESS (tie): Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine and Adèle Exarchopoulos, Blue Is the Warmest Color

BEST SCREENPLAY: Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Before Midnight
Runner-up: Spike Jonze, Her

BEST ACTOR: Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Runner-up: Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave

BEST DIRECTOR: Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
Runner-up: Spike Jonze, Her

BEST DOCUMENTARY, Stories We Tell
Runner-up: The Act of Killing

Douglas Edwards Independent/Experimental Film/Video Award: Cabinets Of Wonder: Films and a Performance by Charlotte Pryce

BEST MUSIC SCORE, T Bone Burnett, Inside Llewyn Davis
Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett, Her

BEST ANIMATION, Ernest & Celestine
Runner-up: The Wind Rises

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, Winner (tie): James Franco, Spring Breakers, and Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Emmanuel Lubezki, Gravity
Runner-up, Bruno Delbonnel, Inside Llewyn Davis

BEST EDITING: Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger, Gravity
Runner-up: Shane Carruth and David Lowery, Upstream Color

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
Runner-up: June Squibb, Nebraska

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: K.K. Barrett, HER
Runner-up: Jess Gonchor, Inside Llewyn Davis

NEW GENERATION Prize: Megan Ellison

LEGACY OF CINEMA: The Criterion Collection

SPECIAL CITATION: 12 Years a Slave

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Washington Area Film Critics Association: 2013 Awards

Posted on December 9, 2013 at 8:15 am

And the winners are….

Best Film:
12 Years a Slave

Best Director:
Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)

Best Actor:
Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)

Best Actress:
Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Best Supporting Actor:
Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Supporting Actress:
Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)

Best Acting Ensemble:
12 Years a Slave

Best Youth Performance:
Tye Sheridan (Mud)

Best Adapted Screenplay:
John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)

Best Original Screenplay:
Spike Jonze (Her)

Best Animated Feature:
Frozen

Best Documentary:
Blackfish

Best Foreign Language Film:
The Broken Circle Breakdown

Best Art Direction:
Production Designer: Catherine Martin, Set Decorator: Beverley Dunn (The Great Gatsby)

Best Cinematography:
Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, A.M.C. (Gravity)

Best Editing:
Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger (Gravity)

Best Original Score:
Hans Zimmer (12 Years a Slave)

The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, DC:
Lee Daniels’ The Butler

Members of WAFCA discuss the awards on this special edition of Keeping it Reel:

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Washington Area Film Critic Awards: The Nominees are Out!

Posted on December 8, 2013 at 12:00 pm

It’s awards season! I’m voting in at least four different critics awards groups and will keep posting updates. Despite the manipulation of the awards process and questions about the relevance of critic awards, I think they are meaningful. First, critics are the only people who spend the whole year seeing the widest possible range of films, mostly in theaters, as they were intended to be seen. We don’t watch only those films supported by their studios for awards, so we have context and experience to guide our choices, and no relationships with filmmakers to affect our judgement as the industry awards do. Because of that, we can pay tribute to some films that might otherwise be overlooked. I’m proud of the Washington Area Film Critics Association nominees:

Best Film:
American Hustle
Gravity
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
12 Years a Slave

Best Director:
Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)
Spike Jonze (Her)
Baz Luhrmann (The Great Gatsby)
Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)
Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)

Best Actor:
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
Joaquin Phoenix (Her)
Robert Redford (All is Lost)

Best Actress:
Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
Judi Dench (Philomena)
Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)
Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks)

Best Supporting Actor:
Daniel Brühl (Rush)
Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
James Franco (Spring Breakers)
James Gandolfini (Enough Said)
Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Supporting Actress:
Scarlett Johansson (Her)
Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)
Octavia Spencer (Fruitvale Station)
June Squibb (Nebraska)

Best Acting Ensemble:
American Hustle
August: Osage County
Prisoners
12 Years a Slave
The Way, Way Back

Best Youth Performance:
Asa Butterfield (Ender’s Game)
Adéle Exarchopoulos (Blue Is the Warmest Color)
Liam James (The Way, Way Back)
Waad Mohammed (Wadjda)
Tye Sheridan (Mud)

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater (Before Midnight)
Billy Ray (Captain Phillips)
Michael H. Weber & Scott Neustadter (The Spectacular Now)
John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)
Terence Winter (The Wolf of Wall Street)

Best Original Screenplay:
Eric Warren Singer & David O. Russell (American Hustle)
Woody Allen (Blue Jasmine)
Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said)
Spike Jonze (Her)
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)

Best Animated Feature:
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Frozen
Monsters University
The Wind Rises

Best Documentary:
The Act of Killing
Blackfish
Leviathan
Stories We Tell
20 Feet from Stardom

Best Foreign Language Film:
Blue Is the Warmest Color
The Broken Circle Breakdown
The Hunt
The Past
Wadjda

Best Art Direction:
Production Designer: Andy Nicholson, Set Decorator: Rosie Goodwin (Gravity)
Production Designer: Catherine Martin, Set Decorator: Beverley Dunn (The Great Gatsby)
Production Designer: K.K. Barrett, Set Decorator: Gene Serdena (Her)
Production Designer: Jess Gonchor, Set Decorator: Susan Bode Tyson (Inside Llewyn Davis)
Production Designer: Adam Stockhausen, Set Decorator: Alice Baker (12 Years a Slave)

Best Cinematography:
Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, A.M.C. (Gravity)
Simon Duggan, ACS (The Great Gatsby)
Hoyte Van Hoytema, F.S.F., N.S.C. (Her)
Bruno Delbonnel, AFC, ASC (Inside Llewyn Davis)
Sean Bobbitt, BSC (12 Years a Slave)

Best Editing:
Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger (Gravity)
Eric Zumbrunnen, A.C.E., Jeff Buchanan (Her)
Dan Hanley, A.C.E., Mike Hill, A.C.E. (Rush)
Joe Walker (12 Years a Slave)
Thelma Schoonmaker, A.C.E. (The Wolf of Wall Street)

Best Original Score:
Christophe Beck (Frozen)
Arcade Fire (Her)
Steven Price (Gravity)
Thomas Newman (Saving Mr. Banks)
Hans Zimmer (12 Years a Slave)

The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, DC:
Lee Daniels’ The Butler
The East
Olympus Has Fallen
Philomena
White House Down

We will announce our winners Monday morning at 8 am.

And I was honored to be invited on two podcasts to discuss our awards, Cinema Royale with Travis Hopson and Cinema Con Queso with John Nolan.

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Add Your Vote to the Critics Choice Television Awards

Posted on June 7, 2013 at 11:20 pm

The Broadcast Film Critics awards for television will be given out on the Reelz Channel on June 16. Viewers will decide the winner of the best TV moment award. Was it the finale of “The Office?” The sad death on “Downton Abbey?” Daenereys’ dragon on “Game of Thrones?” The reveal — finally — of the mother Ted will be meeting — finally — on “How I Met Your Mother?” Cast your vote for the one you think deserves to win.

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The Razzies — The Worst Films of 2012

Posted on February 24, 2013 at 8:36 am

The day before the Oscars, the Razzies are awarded to the worst films of the year. Adam Sandler, who swept the awards last year for “Jack and Jill,” managed to get only two Razzies (worst actor, worst screenplay). The last chapter of “Twilight’ was the big winner/loser this year, with Razzies for Worst Picture, Worst Actress (Kristen Stewart) Worst Supporting Actor (Taylor Lautner), Worst Screen Couple (Lautner and 12 year-old Mackenzie Foy), and Worst Screen Ensemble, Worst Remake/Rip-Off or Sequel, and Worst Director. Don’t agree? You can be a Razzie voter next year.

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